ON ACTING: Doing the Work

From the desk of Casting Director Lisa Bramon Garcia:

"...The thing that's killing me the most is how actors are coming into the room both unprepared and powerless. I understand the running around and the last minute appointments and the feeling of being totally out of control... but I have seen actor after actor tank themselves. And it's making me crazy.

And yet, those actors who've come in and just played the scene -- with focus, confidence, simplicity, and centeredness have grabbed our attention. The ones who have made it about the work in the scene, on the page.

In the end, it's got to be about the work. Not the job, not the room, not the day... but the scene and the luxury of sinking oneself into the character, into the moment, and playing the exchange. For ourselves. That's what we came for. Some actors know how to do that and just forget. Some get distracted. Some can't and have no idea what to do. No matter what, anything that interferes with the simple and clear connection of the characters, the meat of the scene... will inhibit any possibility of that insane moment in time coming to fruition. It's so much easier than so many actors make it. And yet we let so much outside of the work, outside of the scene, get in our way.

I had a few real "aha" auditions on this show. A few actors who came in and did extraordinary work. And they all - from Fisher Stevens to Lee Majors, reading for the same role mind you - were in the scene in the most complete and specific and clear way. And it was undeniable.

So let's get out of our way, all of us, me included. And get to the work. To the thing we know and love. To the thing that we came here to do. Everything else is the haze that keeps us from the sun."